Saudi Arabia pulls down GCC Equities, Kuwait bucks the trend

Executive Summary

GCC markets extended their losses for the third consecutive month in October, after the sell-off in Saudi Arabia. However, Kuwait bucked the trend by posting a gain of 0.7%. The decline in Saudi stocks during the month was fuelled by Fitch's downgrade of the country's credit rating due to increased geopolitical risk and the circulation of uncertain news over Saudi Aramco's IPO date. Global markets remained largely positive, with the U.S. equity markets touching record highs after the U.S. Fed decided to cut interest rates for the third time in 2019.

We see the following issues as key developments during the month of October:

- Kuwait Telecom Industry -Driving digital transformation
- Kuwait improves in Competitiveness and Ease of Doing Business Rankings
- How does remittance cost in the GCC stack up with other regions?